We hastily prepared to leave the throne room.

The elvish nobles had all left, leaving behind an empty hall. Aquia came in and muttered a short chant. The light went out, starting from the chandelier and ended with the candles getting blown out. The only source of illumination left was the small gemstones embedded on the ceiling. They cast a dim light onto the room, cloaking its glamor in a thin veil of darkness.

We trod along the corridors. Aquia followed me from behind. For the pilot, he was escorted out by Koro and Nemi, who both walked by his side. Nemi kept her distance and moved with grace, but Koro was more daring. She snuggled into his arms, which the pilot initially resisted, his face a tinge of red as Koro smothered his face with her pointy and fluffy ears. Still, I caught him stealing glances at me now and then.

Our journey came to a halt as we arrived in front of a large door made of metals and finished with gold. The texture was a juxtaposition of curves and strangely enough, hexagons as if they were extracted from snake’s skin and patched together. Aquia stepped forward. Soon, the door that rivaled a hundred-year-old oak in height was pushed open after a short chant.

As head maid of the palace, it was Aquia’s duties to take care of some security tasks besides her main duty that was the management of logistics for meetings, banquets, and balls. I granted Aquia access to most, if not all the locks and keys in the palace. She then diverted some of the responsibility to the maid under her command like Nemi, thus the demihuman cat could access some rooms too, but the more important ones were under Aquia’s direct administration.

As soon as we got into the room, I already found Sistia standing inside, her expression complicated. She appeared to be thinking hard about some matter that she did not notice all the ruckus we made entering the room, only after Aquia called out to her did she react. She hastily knelt down, her black dress fluttering as she did.

“Anastasia-sama.”

“What are you doing, Sistia?” I asked.

The room we were standing in was not abundant in light. Structured like many other command rooms in the palace, it had a huge, glossy table as its center. Orbiting around were various magical gemstones, scrolls, maps, and other control devices. Until we came in, Sistia was messing around with the map displayed on the table’s surface, which was basically a giant block of blue Lapis. Fed with enough mana, it could display images captured from other Lapis stones.

“The map …  Anastasia-sama, it’s all gone. The guys at the watchtower were right. There is no information, no vision, nothing. It was as if we fell into another world.”

She tried to keep herself composed, but I could see a hint of unrest in her face.

I stepped forward and observed the map table. It did not take much time to notice the ocean flanking us from all sides. These were from the Lapis at the supposed border of Altria. Dragging and stretching outward only yielded the same result, no matter how far I went, even approaching the Lapis stones' vision limit. Only a never-ending stretch of blue ahead.

As I was deep in thought, there were some noises behind me. I turned back to see the pilot scurrying towards Sistia, his expression a mix of disbelief and anger. He pointed his finger at her.

“You, it was you! You are the one who shot down my plane!”

The atmosphere froze.

There was a translation topaz in the room, so we all got what he was saying. But sometimes, it’s better not to be able to understand. Sistia, who had been in a conflicting state of emotion for a while, now found a target to unleash her displeasure. She trudged toward the pilot, her footsteps heavy as they echoed throughout the room.

“Who allows you to open your mouth in the presence of Her Majesty, human mongrel?”

She muttered a short chant, and there was a flash of velvet red light across the room. Her right hand, which was bare just a few seconds ago, now held her signature scythe, its blade still had streaks of dried blood.

Under her overwhelming presence, the pilot, who was so sure of himself, now cowered in fear. He stepped back, his legs shaky as Sistia with her oversized scythe slowly backed him into a corner. There was a strong murderous intent in her eyes. It would not be a surprise to anyone if she snapped and swung her death blade down, taking the man’s life right at this moment.

“It’s enough, Sistia! Do you intend to kill our guest?”

I called out to Sistia in panic. Hearing my words, she snapped out of her killer mode and begrudgingly lowered her scythe, but still glaring daggers at the pilot. The poor man had big globs of tears swelling in his eyes, his leg quivering in fear. The other ones present in the room, the demihuman maid girls only knew to stay in their place and watch the fun, except for Nemi, who daringly stepped forward to drag Sistia away from the Chinese pilot. He hastily stood up and took a labored breath.

I let out a long sigh.

Sista’s actions always hurt my neurons. Girl. Demons. Headache. Bad.

“Are you fine, young man? Got hurt anywhere?”

I sauntered toward him and checked his condition. Aside from some wet patches on his blue shirt from the sweat that soaked in, he was still, thankfully, in one piece. As I lowered my head and scoured his body in detail for possible damage, I caught the pilot averting his eyes from me, his head turned sideways as his face was dyed a tint of red.

“I...I’m fine!”

He quickly stood up and brushed off the dust from his attire, his action fast-paced as if he was pushed by something.

“Are you really OK? I'm extremely sorry for my subordinate’s behavior. Sometimes she’s like that, well, maybe more times than needed. But she meant no harm, it’s just her way of expressing displeasure.”

I turned back and threw Sistia a disapproving look. She was being held at the arms by Nemi. Her bat wings curled up and her eyes a forlorn expression, like a lost puppy in the park.

“Well then, your subordinate has a unique way of expressing displeasure, I must say...”

Seeing him regain his composure, I decided to push the conversation forward.

“Anyway, I haven’t known your name, young man.”

For a moment, he seemed surprised by my question, but he still put up an answer without much delay.

“You… want to know my name? For a person of your caliber, I don’t think my name has any value to you.”

“Why not? You are my important guest, and we are just exchanging pleasantries. My name is Anastasia di Elvignon, queen and reigning monarch of the Kingdom of Altria. Our meeting was a fortuitous one, and may the blessing of our god unto you, young man.”

I raised the hems of my dress and lightly curtsied. He hastily performed a clumsy gesture, obviously a copycat of what he just saw me doing.

“Umm … my name is Li Cheng, a jet pilot in the People's Liberation Army Air Force. Uh, nice to meet you?”

I let out a light chuckle. His face ripened up like a tomato. I was a former man, no doubt, but I found this guy’s antics kind of cute, plus he had a somewhat androgynous face, not too rough and edged for a man in the military. I knew plenty of girls in my old university would be heads over heels for a guy like this.

I then gestured to him to take a seat. We both made ourselves comfortable in the wooden chairs, in front of each other. Aquia and Koro stood behind us, while Nemi still kept close watch on Sisita.

“Okay, no need for further formality, let’s just head straight to business. I’m sure you had a lot of questions in your mind. Please feel free to ask, and I will try to answer them.”

The pilot was initially hesitant, but curiosity got the better of him, and he said.

“Earlier, you said you are the … queen, if I did not mishear. Is that supposed to be a complicated joke?”

“Mongrel! You dare question the queen’s absolute rul-”

“Stuff something in her mouth please, Nemi.”

“Roger, Anastsia-sama.”

“Nemi! You can’t do this to me, you stupid cat-nnnnnmmmm!”

The pilot’s eyes rolled as he watched the commotion behind me. Meanwhile, I kept a smiling face as we continued our discussion, now free from any disrupting noises.

“I expect you to ask this. When I said I’m the queen, I meant it. You are currently in the palace of the kingdom of Altria that I ruled over, however, we weren’t supposed to be here in anyways. Due to some forces unknown, it seemed our country has been … ripped apart from our world and transported to this place. We don’t know exactly where we are either.”

The pilot - Li Cheng listened to me attentively.

“Your story, it’s … very hard to believe. Had it not been for your serious attitude, many would have thought this to be, forgive my rudeness, some kind of joke or prank. There is no ‘kingdom of Altria’ in this world, and yes, there are some countries with the title of kingdoms left, but their monarchs only served a ceremonial role. They don’t have any real power.”

“I understand. By the way, there is something I want to ask you. It might seem random but, you are from a species called human, right?”

The pilot, not expecting my question, answered in a confused tone.

“Human? Yes, I am? Why do you ask an obvious question like that?”

“Are there any other races in your world? The kinds with the same intelligence?”

This served as a final confirmation to whether we were on Earth or just a place similar to Earth. Very quickly, he gave me the reply I wanted.

“No, well, not that I heard of. I learned from uni that there were other intelligent species like humans but apparently, they died off many years ago. Humans are the only sentient beings left on Earth now.”

“I understood. Then, this will be my best proof for you.”

I said while bringing his attention to my ears. He looked at them hard.

“You have … very long ears, kind of like a character from the myths in this world. They are called-”

“Elves?”

“Yes, elves ... wait, why do you know that? Doesn’t the story go that you're from another world?”

“Because I am one. The translation topaz conveyed what I mean if it's in the scope of your own knowledge. And Koro over here, she is a demihuman from the Nui race.”

I said while pointing at Koro, who happily wagged her tail in response.

“Mister, you had a nice smell on you! Koro likes it!”

“And the one that escorted you from your room, Nemi, is also a demihuman. She is a member of the Neko race. Lastly, the purple-haired maid standing over there, she is, I guess a human like you? At the very least she is not from any demihuman tribes like the other two. There are many other races, but it would be a pain to mention all of them.”

Aquia lightly curtsied while lowering her head. Nemi, on the other hand, ignored us as she was still struggling to gag a belligerent Sisita who desperately resisted.

“Oh, and there is also Sistia, the pink-haired bat-winged over there. She is a demon, a succubus, to be exact. I advise you not to provoke her, lest the result be what you personally experienced from before. And she might go much further, mind you.”

The pilot - Li Cheng nodded, still shaky from Sisita's rampage. Then, he toured through our appearances one more time.

“So what you mean is that, you guys are not cosplaying?”

“C-cosplay!?”

I gasped in disbelief.

What was this guy thinking!? Cosplay!?

It was a blessing that the translation topaz could not pick up slang, or the girls behind me will be very mad. Demihumans hated their identity being questioned.

I let out a long sigh.

“Koro, come over here.”

“Yes, Anastasia-sama!”

Koro dashed toward us. In the blink of an eye, she already seated herself comfortably in my lap, the fur from her tail rubbing against my thigh. 

“Here, try patting her head.”

The pilot hesitated.

“Um, why do I have to do this?”

“Just do it.”

His hand hovered mid-air. After some time, he finally got his hand on Koro’s head. She reacted instinctively and put her ears down and back. A cute smile lit up her face as she was treated with a good ear rub. She let out a low-pitched giggle.

“Her ears are … real?”

Li Cheng stared at Koro in disbelief. It seemed the comfy and dog-like features of Koro had registered in his mind.

“It is. Or, do you want some further confirmation, young man?”

I leaned forward and tucked a few flocks of hair behind my ear with my hand. My long and pointy ear was in his full view.

“Want to touch them?”

I smirked.

His face got red like a ripe tomato, one could even see smokes puffing from it. He clumsily fell back on his chair, his voice stuttering.

“I believe you! OK? Please … please don’t come any closer!”

I chuckled. Guys like him are so much fun to tease. In my past life, I would kill to have a cute girl do this to me. Lucky bastard.

Oh, that reminded me, he had a girlfriend, didn’t he? Their picture was on his phone. I did not have a girlfriend yet, and my life was already cut short. This guy should go somewhere and explode.

Just kidding, teehee~

He is our only source of information, after all. There is still a lot of work ahead.

“If you have come to understand our situation, I would like to apologize for the trouble caused by us. We did not shoot down your plane, and we have never intended to do so, but we couldn't think of any other method to gain information. Time was against us.”

I slightly lowered my head.

Li Cheng became flustered. He quickly replied.

“No … no, it was not your fault by any means. The plane’s engine was broken and had it not been for your timely rescue, I would have died from the fall. In retrospect, I have been rude to my very own benefactors, and I’m sorry about that.”

He hastily lowered his head, almost parallel to the floor.

I replied with a smile.

“I’m glad we came to an understanding. Now, I see it’s almost time for dinner, why don’t you stay here for the night? On the morrow, we will show you around our capital. I’m sure you will love it.”